Saturday, 9 November 2013

Follow Up

During the months following the M.A.D. EXPO, Sec 2-1 returned to their routine school life. However, their sense of commitment towards FDS was not lost. After the End-Of-Year exams, 4 groups decided to return to their M.A.D. projects and improve on their work, with the hope of turning their initial prototypes into more polished products. The teams and their respective projects were:

Surabhi's group (Creating a Social Media Guide for FDS members)

Natchanon's group (Re-designing a Sales Desk for Mr Palang)

Alvin's group (Developing a Communication App for Ms Pricilla)

Megan's Group (Creating a Publicity video for FDS).

Over the post-exam period and the early part of the November school holidays, these 4 groups worked closely with expert mentors from our school who guided the students on the technical skills required to enhance their prototyped ideas. For instance, Natchanon's group worked under the guidance of the D&T teachers to improve on the construction of their sales desk idea while Megan's group worked with the New Media Club to produce a publicity video for FDS. The team learnt new skills of film making, voice recording and video editing along the way.

Alvin's group learnt the skills for Android app development from the school's Technical Executive, Mr Chua. The group mastered the basic skills of a programming software and was extremely engrossed in their work!

Overall, from this experience, the groups learnt that the development of real products, anything from tables to applications, is tedious and technically challenging. They truly demonstrated the values of adventurousness and tenacity in venturing into new areas far beyond the scope of their textbooks and carrying their project all the way to the end, even sacrificing several days of their November school holidays to complete their work.

As an enrichment, the teams were brought to the school's refurnished Design Studio and were introduced to the new 3D printers. Students were truly amazed by the capabilities of technology! Their eyes were glued to the small window of the 3D printer machine as they watched the machine hum away.

We hope that this has been a fulfilling learning experience for our students. None of this would have been possible without support from the school leaders and the help of colleagues from various departments.